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Botswana's Okavango Delta is a haven for elephants - just make sure you stay alert

Feeding the trained elephants pellets after riding or walking with them is a favourite treat.

Photograph by: Theresa Storm
, Freelance

OKAVANGO DELTA, BOTSWANA — It happened unexpectedly; a ticked-off trumpet thundered from the inky darkness of the Botswana night outside the Boma, mere metres from where we dined, so intense it reverberated through my soul like the vibrations of a bass drum.

Next, a flash of massive fanned out ears, ghostly lit by campfire and table lantern; then charge!

As we fled without thinking, my husband, who was delayed by his chair tipped over in haste, was stopped by a guide and told not to run, as we had been advised numerous times already, particularly when observing cheetahs on foot in Namibia. Slinging his arm firmly around Reid’s back, the two big, tall men stood their ground and the several thousand kilogram adolescent male African elephant, who had of late been hanging around the camp, backed away.

We had watched him earlier foraging on lush vegetation, surprised to find him so near the elevated walkway of our camp on Paradise Island in the heart of the pristine Okavango Delta. It’s the world’s largest inland freshwater delta and one of its most important wetlands, covering a fan-shaped 16,000-square-kilometre chunk of the semi-arid Kalahari Desert, the planet’s largest stretch of sand.

He seemed unperturbed by us then. But something now had irritated him, perhaps the couple rising from their chairs directly in front of the V-cut.

Bull elephants often mock charge, Moreri, the veteran guide reassured as we regrouped, our adrenaline being released by laughing at how instinctively we reacted.

“I’ve never seen people dash out of chairs so quickly,” I said, giggling as I noticed I still gripped my mousse dessert glass.

Mock or real, playful or serious, it was no laughing matter. Our headstrong visitor is the world’s largest land mammal.

It was a bonding, yet sobering, moment, one in which we realized how tiny and defenceless we are in the vast, survival of the fittest, eat or be eaten African wilderness.

A wilderness that, in many places on the continent, is in jeopardy due to the actions of mankind but is flourishing here in the Okavango Delta, thanks to a forward-thinking government working in partnership with non-profits and companies like Wilderness Safaris.

Both were honoured with 2013 Condé Nast Traveler World Savers Awards: the Okavango Delta won sustainable destination in a developing country for ensuring tourism protects the environment and benefits local people; Wilderness Safaris the wildlife award for its help reintroducing white and black rhinos to the Okavango Delta and funding a project to save Botswana’s endangered wild dogs, as well as financing studies to aid in conserving the country’s roan antelope and lions.

Botswana’s president was also honoured as a Global Visionary for advancing sustainable development at home and continentwide. His steadfast stance? Africa does not need to be destroyed to flourish.

His results speak louder than conservation rhetoric. Whereas elsewhere in eastern and southern Africa the number of savannah elephants, kin of our Xigera friend (or foe), is declining due to poaching, the delta now claims the largest population — about 25,000; too many, really.

That creates a different problem; conflict with humans near settlements, as we got a little taste of first-hand. The pachyderms damage crops and property.

Perhaps chilies on our dinner table would have prevented our encounter that night. But we wouldn’t have wanted it to. Elephant charge and other surprising wildlife experiences in the raw African wilderness are the most shared stories of our week at three of Wilderness Safaris’ 17 Okavango Delta luxury tented camps.

Despite our momentary fright, the next day we find ourselves high atop the great mammals on an elephant-back safari at Abu Camp in northern Botswana, a mere five-minute flight from Xigera. Ironically, three elephants, in no hurry to get off the runway, delay the departure of Tonki ya Makgobogobo (Donkey of the Delta), our Wilderness Air Cessna.

While all of Wildernesses’ safari camps are different, one from the other, Abu is unique as it’s the only camp with a resident herd of trained elephants.

I’m aboard Cathy, the herd’s matriarch, known as the limousine for the most comfortable ride. I’m not nervous at all but I do harbour new-found tusker respect. From her handler, who straddles her neck, I learn Cathy shares Canadian citizenship. Soon after her 1960 Uganda birth, she was taken to a safari park near Toronto. More than 25 years later, she was recruited for a movie in South Africa by Abu Camp’s founders, afterwards moving to the camp to help pioneer Africa’s first elephant-back safaris in 1990.

Guests can pet, ride, go for escorted walks with, help their devoted handlers care for, and even sleep near the elephants. Their contented rumblings and snores are audible from the mosquito net-enclosed Star Bed on a raised platform overlooking the elephant Boma, the only experience of its kind in Africa.

Besides Cathy, we are joined by the other five Abu elephants, all female and all rescued or born to mothers here. Several previously captive elephants have been released to the wild, and, recently, a young male offspring left the herd.

Each has their own personality. We are soon reminded of their great power when almost two-year-old Warona, the herd’s youngest, playfully pushes Reid into a bush, not aware of her already big size.

Her mother Shirheni insists that he, with his shaved head, needs a hat, plucking one off a guide’s head and plunking it on his, twice.

We also derive great amusement feeding the elephants pellets after our ride. “Trunk up,” we learn, is the mouth opening command, allowing us to throw a large handful of pellets in. “Trunk down” is the order to lower and upturn the leathery appendage, into which we directly dump the food.

For two short days, we are part of this special elephant herd, yet another treasured memory of a trip-of-a-lifetime to the wetland paradise and Kalahari sands of the Okavango Delta.

Where to go, what time of year, and which camps? Choosing can be overwhelming. All camps are so different. Wilderness will put you in touch with a Canadian preferred tour operator. All are experts and know the camps. Based on guest input about the type of experience they are seeking, operators prepare a custom itinerary.

Wilderness Wildlife Trust:

Through its Wilderness Wildlife Trust, on-the-ground support (manpower, accommodation, infrastructure and vehicles, for example) and funding is provided for 93 conservation efforts in eight southern Africa countries, to which safari guests also donate.

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